


hey, can you peel this for me?

by haewon



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: M/M, SEUNGCHEOL IS ME, everyone is bad at feelings, jeongcheol if u SQUINT - Freeform, joshua loves seokmin and discounts, mingyu is sorta just there, same with seungkwan, seokmin is innocent and loves tangerines, soonyoung and jeonghan meddle, the old lady is a god
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-10
Updated: 2018-04-10
Packaged: 2019-04-14 10:03:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,338
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14133783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/haewon/pseuds/haewon
Summary: In which Joshua buys a tangerine that he can’t quite peel open.





	hey, can you peel this for me?

**Author's Note:**

> hello!! I wrote a seoksoo fic because I love Joshua and Seokmin so much. These two are much too pure for anything racy, so I tried to outline a rather innocent theme in this story! I feel like in this sort of dynamic relationship, Joshua would be the one with the complicated outlook on things because he’s the one who worries more often (this got really long, lol). 
> 
> as a side note, not super satisfied with how this turned out so ill probably edit this in the future! 
> 
> (this is me procrastinationing on my meanie fic)
> 
> anyways...sorry for the rant!! enjoy!!

Joshua is at it once again.

Jeonghan scolds the him like a child, but that doesn’t stop his best friend from grabbing his wallet off of the counter and heading out into the fresh spring breeze.

Days like these were the best to get all of the shopping done because no one else was in the stores on such a beautiful day. An afternoon on a day like today was spent at the beach or having a picnic, not out searching for the latest discounts. 

And with this beautiful spring weather spring comes tangerines, and Joshua loves them almost as much as his younger friend Seokmin does. The guy could fall asleep peeling one and wake up to eat it in the morning. Joshua would be lying if he said he didn’t think those actions were extremely cute. 

Joshua stalks over to the stall where he spots an elderly women putting away her stock for the day. “Excuse me, are you still open?” 

The elder looks up from where she’s placed several boxes of the orange delicacies in a cart, ready to wheel it back home. “Well, if such a handsome young man wants to buy some, how could I possibly refuse?” 

“Thank you!” Joshua replies softly as the woman begins to unload her tangerines into a bag, and Joshua doesn’t have the heart to tell her he only wanted a few.

 

Joshua enters the dorm room with four huge bags of tangerines balancing in his arms, and Jeonghan is speechless.

“Why do you have so much?” Jeonghan gets up from his position on the couch to peer into the bags. “There’s probably over a hundred of those things!” 

“I know, but the aunty was eager and I couldn’t refuse,” Joshua smiles weakly, letting his bags fall gently to the floor. “I decided to buy all of the tangerines because Seokmin likes them.” 

“You bought all of these for him?” Jeonghan stares, dumbfounded, as Joshua’s face reddens. 

“Well, it’s the best season for these, and she sold me them for half the price,” Joshua replies sheepishly, and Jeonghan runs a hand down his face.

“Who tries to subtly ‘woo’ their crush with their favorite food? I’m honestly in shock!” Jeonghan spits, his eyes widening with disbelief. “Shua, who does that?”

Joshua merely shrugs his shoulders.

“Wait till I tell Seungcheol, we’ll be eating tangerines for a month!” and with that, the older stalks out of the room and off towards his bedroom. His mumbling can be heard until a door creaks open and shuts shortly after. 

Joshua picks the bags up again and brings them over to the kitchen, where Mingyu stands in front of the refrigerator, clearly searching for something within its contents. The taller doesn’t notice Joshua is there until he sets the bags onto the countertop. 

Mingyu flinches, flinging himself onto one of the fridge’s doors, almost ripping the thing off it’s hinges. “Hyung, don’t scare me like that!” 

“Sorry, but I thought you would have noticed me,” Joshua chuckles, bringing a hand to his mouth to muffle his giggling. 

“What’s in the bag?” Mingyu asks, finally taking notice of the plethora of plastic that Joshua has set down. 

“Oh, just some tangerines,” Joshua replies casually as he goes to the cabinet to retrieve a bowl, “I was searching for discounts and was lucky enough to get all of these!” 

Joshua dumps the contents of all the bags into a singular bowl, and grabs one from the very top to eat. Mingyu watches with pity as Joshua attempts to peel the tangerine, but to no avail. 

“Are they not ripe enough?” Joshua questions aloud, trying to rip the orange covering off of his self-declared favorite fruit, “Let go, I want to eat you!” 

“It’s definitely ripe enough,” Mingyu comments, observing its deep orange hue. “Toss it here and let me have a shot at it.”

Needless to say, he failed. 

“You’re a stubborn little guy, aren’t you,” Mingyu states through clenched teeth. He is in the process of bringing the fruit to his mouth when Joshua yells out in protest, snatching his tangerine from Mingyu’s grasp.

“Don’t be gross!” Joshua scolds the younger, who pouts sadly. He then decides that the best course of action would be to recruit a world class peeler to the job (as if that wasn’t his main intention in the first place). _He’s just so funny_. “I’ll just get Seokmin-ah to peel it, do you know where he is?” 

“He left with his gang — headed to the practice room last time I heard anything,” Mingyu turns back to the refrigerator and grabs out a water bottle. “Found you,” he whistles happily, before twisting it open and taken a sip. 

“Oh, thanks!” Joshua hurriedly rushes out a statement of gratitude before he snatches another tangerine — Seokmin will want one — before heading out the door for the second time that day. 

When he reaches the company building he’s already out of breath with two tangerines grasped in either hand. Joshua realizes he must look kind of weird right now, so he tucks the fruits in his pocket. 

Joshua swiftly enters the building and bows to the receptionist before climbing the stairs. He already hears the music blaring before he even opens the door.

There, in the middle of the room, Seungkwan, Soonyoung, and the young male he’s looking for, Seokmin, sit on the floor, panting and sweating as if it was the only thing they knew how to do. They had clearly just finished practicing, so Joshua waits silently until they turn towards the sound of hinges squeaking to see him standing in the doorway. 

“Hyung!” They all greet in unison, and Joshua smiles. He ignores the feelings stirring in his chest as he heads to the center for the floor and takes a seat beside them. Seokmin gets up to turn the music off before going to sit back down next to Seungkwan and Soonyoung. 

“Hello, you guys are working hard, I see,” Joshua notes their heavy breathing and feels a bit bad that he didn’t bring them anything to drink. He’s clearly playing favorites as Soonyoung lets out a shrill laugh. 

“We just ran through it twice and now Seungkwan is dying,” he shifts his attention to the youngest one in the room, clinging to the ground as if his life depends on it. 

“Are you okay, Seungkwan-ah?” Joshua immediately leaps up to comfort the younger, who lets out a distressed groan in response. 

“He’s fine, just give him some time,” Soonyoung laughs, rolling over to poke at Seungkwan’s puffy cheeks. The younger cries out with protest as he is engulfed in a large hug. 

Joshua is suddenly made acutely aware that Seokmin has been staring at him without a word, and decides maybe he should start up some sort of conversation to make things less awkward.

“So, the weather,” Joshua starts, scratching the back of his head, a nervous smile spreading across his face. “It’s nice, huh?” 

“I guess,” Seokmin mumbles, prodding at his shoelaces as he unties them, just to tie them back up again. Soonyoung squeals from somewhere across the room, but Joshua ignores it, deciding to just whip out the fruits in his pocket instead.

“The weather is perfect for tangerines, so I brought you one,” Joshua smiles softly, and he swears he can see Seokmin’s ears redden. 

“You brought one just for me?” The younger questions, his eyes lighting up as he snatches the orange fruit from Joshua’s hand and peels it, before popping a small piece in his mouth. His eyes light up happily, “So sweet!” 

“I feel a bit selfish to ask you to peel mine open for me too,” Joshua starts, but Seokmin doesn’t hesitate to pluck the other fruit from Joshua’s hand, peeling it perfectly, and setting it gingerly back into Joshua’s grasp. 

Joshua declares this a victory, and fights back the urge to throw a triumphant fist through the air and scream with unparalleled joy — “Thanks Seokmin-ah, I can always count on you,” Joshua directs a wink at the younger before bidding the trio goodbye. “Good luck on your practice!” 

As Joshua closes the door behind him, he can’t help but acknowledge the loud beating of his heart.

 

This becomes a daily routine, Joshua stepping in during their practices and eating a tangerine with Seokmin after the initial rehearsal is over. 

Seokmin understands their little rendezvous to be one where they strictly eat tangerines and chat, but Joshua thinks it’s much, much more than that. The older feels like he’s taking advantage of the younger — just a bit. Joshua doesn’t dare voice any of this aloud. 

They chat more easily now, Joshua pushing away all of the stigma he once had and speaking freely. He feels himself growing closer to the younger male, and he doesn’t dislike what he’s feeling towards him. 

It’s a pleasantly warm presence that radiates deeply in his chest. Seokmin’s laugh cheers him up, and he can’t help but find himself smiling along softly to everything the younger tells him.

Joshua is in love — not like he wasn’t aware of it to begin with. He might appear to be some sort of gentlemen, but he had his own selfish reasons as well, and he doesn’t regret having them. 

Joshua and Seokmin are inseparable for a little over a month, and the other members can see their bond growing by the second. It’s peaceful and amusing, and many whisper about how it was natural and bound to happen eventually. Apparently, the two were perfect together. 

Until one day, they run out of tangerines. 

Joshua steps into the kitchen, a toothbrush still in his mouth as he walks to the bowl and reaches in a sleepy hand, only to come up empty handed. 

Jeonghan and Seungcheol sit at the table, stuffing their faces full of cereal before afternoon practice starts. Joshua doesn’t really register what’s happening, so he tries again, and his hand feels nothing but the bottom of the smooth bowl. 

“Hey, where are the rest of the tangerines?” Joshua asks, his full attention now on the empty bowl in front of him. His stomach twists, and he starts to feel extremely upset for some reason. 

“Oh, that,” Jeonghan sounds bored from his response, but yelps dramatically when Seungcheol kicks his shin from underneath the table, mouthing a very clear _read the mood_. “I ate the last one.” 

Joshua rarely gets mad, but he can’t stop himself from turning beet red as he turns toward his best friend, “And who said you could eat one, let alone the last one?” 

Jeonghan looks a bit freaked out at this point, but shrugs his shoulders. Yoon Jeonghan does not back down from confrontation, “It was sitting in the kitchen, free for anyone to grab one. I don’t think you should be getting mad at me here, Shua.” 

Jeonghan’s very blunt answer shocks Joshua, but he reasons that the elder is right, and Joshua sighs in defeat as he goes to sit next to his fellow group mates. Seungcheol looks hesitant to speak, so Jeonghan does it for him. 

“Stop using those dumb fruits as an excuse to talk to Seokmin-ah,” he states, and Joshua’s heart beats rapidly in his chest. Even the mention of his name sets Joshua on edge. 

“You don’t need those. You two are already so close the tangerines mean nothing now,” Seungcheol adds, taking a spoon full of his cereal, “I’m sure Seokmin feels the same.” 

“But what if he doesn’t,” for the first time in a long time, Joshua expresses how he honestly feels. It’s a good feeling, one that lifts a heavy weight off of his shoulders. “The tangerines are our normal thing now, and when I don’t bring him one it’ll just be — weird.” 

“Wrong. That’s so wrong, oh my god — ness,” Jeonghan speedily corrects himself, loudly clearing his throat. “I can assure you Seokmin will like you to come and visit even if you don’t bring him anything.” 

“Listen to your elders,” Seungcheol comments smugly, but his soft tone says otherwise. “Go talk to him and stop complaining! I’m trying to eat!” 

After that, Joshua is basically kicked out of the dorm. Jeonghan shoots him a reassuring thumbs up before Seungcheol all but slams the door in his face.

He trudges towards the company building, but stops next to the cart where he had previously bought all of the tangerines. He peers curiously over at the women’s stock, but the fruit he’s looking for isn’t there — he figured as much. 

“Oh, young man, I’m afraid most of our fruits are going to be out of stuck until the fall,” she sighs regretfully. “But we do have oranges, if you’d like a few?” 

 

Joshua stumbles towards the building with two paper bags full of oranges. The elderly woman didn’t stop filling the bags up, but Joshua wasn’t complaining. He’d tell Seokmin everything and hopefully they’d go back to being normal friends — on Joshua’s part. He would get over these silly little feelings and they could even share some of these oranges together.

He kicks the company door open and the receptionist greets him. “Oh, Joshua, back again!” 

“Yes, hello,” he breathes out, adjusting his hold on the bags he is balancing in his arms. “Are they in the usual room?” 

“I’m afraid they left to go grab some things from the convince store,” when she sees Joshua’s face fall, she adds, “— they’ll be back soon, why don’t you wait for them until then?” 

Joshua nods solemnly before he decides to take the stairs to the practice room. He pushes he door open with his shoulder and sets the bags down next to the door. Joshua grabs two oranges from the top of the bag and goes to sit in the center of the room. 

He squeezes one of them and lets out a sigh he didn’t realize he’d been holding in, “Joshua Hong, you are honestly pathetic.” 

He’s been tricking his younger friend into hanging out with him under the guise of sharing tangerines together. Joshua runs a hand down his face and lets out a long, drawn out yell. 

He feels himself calming down as someone bursts through the door, their breathing rapid and plastic bag hung around their arm.

It’s Seokmin. 

“Hyung, are you okay, oh my god —“ he runs over to Joshua, tossing his bag to the side carelessly before examining the older. “Why were you screaming so loud? Are you hurt?” 

Joshua grabs Seokmin’s hands fell where they currently rest on his chest, and moves them off to the side. “I’m fine, just a bit frustrated.” 

“So frustrated that I heard you from the lobby?” Seokmin grunts, his eyes still filled with worry. “What’s wrong?” 

“It’s my problem,” Joshua says softly, sending a reassuring smile to Seokmin, who looks a bit unnerved. 

Seokmin scoots closer, and Joshua doesn’t move away. “Hyung, we’ve grown closer. You can confide in me whenever you’d like. I don’t know if there’s anything I can do but I’m always here to listen —“ 

Joshua makes a firm resolution right then and there. He has to say it. “I like someone.” 

Seokmin goes silent, his gaze directed pointedly at the floor. “Oh,” he says, and Joshua doesn’t look at him. 

“They’re younger than me. Hardworking and kind — someone I respect so deeply. But recently I feel like I’ve been taking advantage of their kindness and using it to satisfying my growing desires to be with them constantly,” Joshua starts, and he feels Seokmin shift beside him. “I want to stop these feelings, but even now, they continue to grow.” 

“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to be with the person you like,” Seokmin replies, eyes hooded in his bangs. “You want their attention because you like them, and I feel like they’d understand that.” 

Joshua finds it hard to take in another breath, this whole situation being extremely hard to grasp, “I bought them something as an excuse to be with them, and now I don’t have any more.”

Seokmin looks up skeptically, a confused look plastered clearly on his tan faced. “What do you mean?” 

“I came here today to clear up my feelings,” Joshua smiles, shifting his position so he faces Seokmin fully. He can feel the heat rising to his face but he pushes it back in an attempt to compose himself. He presents the orange to Seokmin, who says nothing, “I brought you this orange because I ran out of tangerines.” 

Suddenly the realization dawns on Seokmin’s face. His eyes widen as he gingerly takes the orange from Joshua’s hand. Tears begin to well up in his eyes, and Joshua panics.

“Hey, why are you crying?” Joshua voices out, bringing a hand to Seokmin’s back in an attempt to comfort him. 

“You like me, hyung?” Seokmin sobs, wiping his tears away with his spare hand, “Really, are you being serious?” 

Joshua nods his head, at a bit of a loss as to what to say next, “I took advantage of your kindness. I just wanted to spend my time with you, but it was selfish of me to hang out as friends when I have these kinds of feelings for you.” 

Seokmin doesn’t say anything after Joshua’s confession, and the older can feel his lips begin to tremble. He fights back the water forming in his eyes as Seokmin knocks the air out of him, pulling him down to the floor.

“I like you too,” Seokmin looks into Joshua’s eyes, smiling so brightly Joshua swears he’s looking at the sun. “I always have. Sorry I seemed so distant, I’m just not good at this kind of thing.” 

Joshua nods his head in understanding, and laced their fingers together. The two flip over so their backs are on the floor, looking up towards the ceiling. 

“Do you like oranges?” Joshua asks, and Seokmin giggles. 

“Not as much as you, if that’s the answer you’re looking for,” he laughs, and Joshua spits out in the surprise, chuckling at Seokmin’s rather blunt response. 

“Well, I bought a lot so you better eat them,” Joshua scolds. “I don’t like wasting money.” 

The duo soon fall into a long, calming silence. It isn’t an uncomfortable one, but one filled with a true understanding. It’s peaceful until Seokmin speaks up. 

“But, hyung, what were you doing in here?” Seokmin asks, peering curiously over at the older, who returns the eye contact with a smile. 

“Well, if I’m being honest, Jeonghan mostly encouraged me to come here and talk with you today,” he replies, and Seokmin furrows his eyebrows in thought. 

“That’s weird, because Soonyoung told me to come back here after we got food from the store to get the charger he left here this morning —“ he pauses, and the both two look over to see that the outlet is completely empty. Something sticks next to it that catches the younger’s eye. 

Seokmin crawls over and snatches a handwritten post-it note off of the wall and reads it silently before passing it off to Joshua. 

_hello, i hope you guys finally confessed to each other! the constant pinning was annoying so hannie-hyung and i hatched a plan! he ate the last tangerine and i ‘left my charger in here’!!! did it work?? loool_  
_love, soonyoungie_

“I think we’re going to need to have a chat with them tonight,” Joshua says, his voice but irritated. “But I am thankful.” 

The two get up from the floor and retrieve their bags they had both discarded somewhere within the room. 

Seokmin nods wordlessly, grabbing the orange he had placed in his pocket and peeling it. He throws the peels in the trash and pops half of it in his mouth and shoves the rest into Joshua’s, who moans with satisfaction at the taste. 

Two two exit the door, and Joshua shuts it behind them as Seokmin adds, “Tangerines are a lot better, though.” 

Joshua definitely agrees with that.

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoyed that mess lol!!


End file.
